Korea is a land of festivals - Jinju Lantern Festival.
*Photo from my phone
Over the long weekend we had a while back my friends and I decided to spend Saturday-Sunday in Jinju for the lantern festival and make a day trip Monday to Andong for the mask festival… things didn’t work out that way but I need to tell you about Jinju first.
We met up at the bus terminal here in Daegu but when the bus we supposedly bought tickets for was loading it was bombarded by a crowd of pushy old women and filled up in seconds. The driver was going to close the doors but we were not about to wait any longer so someone asked if we would be allowed to stand… on 2 hour bus ride. He agreed and we packed ourselves into the aisle were we managed to squeeze and shift until we were uncomfortably sitting down.
We were clearly the favorites among the other passengers. At one point the man sitting in the seat beside me offered Colin and me gum, then proceeded to tell us to stop talking, people are trying to sleep on this mid-day bus ride. It was nice for him to offer us an alternate activity for our mouths I suppose.
Jinju is a much smaller city than Daegu and it didn’t take us much effort to find the festivities. I was sort of a drag most of the day- I wasn’t able to sleep the night before and had been looking forward to the 2 hour ride to get some sleep. That didn’t work out so I was in zombie mode. HOWEVER, I had a really nice time. We spent the daylight hours wandering the big festival market playing strange games like “drop this water beetle into this device and let him choose which prize you get!”. We ended up with soju, a spongebob toy, and a green sheep. We had a very festival-priced (₩₩₩) but very tasty dinner of roast pork.
On our way to the lantern side we bought some fireworks from some college students and set them off along the river with all the other little children. As a native Californian I found this to be so much fun. We never get to buy fireworks in the bay area!
The lanterns were impressive. All along the river there were floating lanterns on display and they were far from traditional. They had cartoon characters and famous landmarks as well as korean soldiers and fairytales. The lantern tunnels were gorgeous and there was a separate one filled with lanterns made by local school children. The more traditional lanterns were hung with prayers and wishes attached to them and it was just amazing how many there were. Sitting on the river we also enjoyed a fireworks show that was really nice. I never seem to get tired of fireworks…
We did a lot of walking, making our way all along the lantern portion of the river and across the floating bridges to the other side. We made our way up to the temple and then back down into town where we bought provisions and searched for a DVD bang to relax in for the night.
At this point it was around midnight and we failed find a DVD bang, and this is where the night got interesting. We decided we might as well just turn in, and I was relieved due to my absurd level of exhaustion. Our plan was (cheapskates that we are) to spend the night in a jjimjilbang, a type of Korean sauna/bath house where you can also spend the night on the heated floors for a small general fee. We walked in the direction we were told we would find the big one, but found ourselves in Jinju’s very own red light district, or “business district” as we called it owing to all the brothels being named “business room”. They were very indiscreet… the interestingly dressed employees all hung around their lobbies with their doors open waiting for customers. We ultimately resorted to asking one for directions and we were pointed toward a small cluster of motels. We decided to give in and maybe splurge on motels but none of them had room for all 7 of us. We soon saw another foreigner and he took us to his motel a few blocks away, but it was full as well. Around 3am we finally got directions at a convenience store and found ourselves in a jam-packed jjimjilbang.
We got our free lounge clothes, dressed, and searched for a spot to sleep but the place was literally covered wall-to-wall. It was also absurdly hot (I know it’s a sauna but how can people sleep like that???), smelly (again, hot + tons of people), and snore-y. We segregated and decided to sleep in our respective changing rooms but eventually we girls were far too cold and far too bothered by the late arrivals. Everyone ended up relocating to the gym which was just as cold but at least it was quiet.
Needless to say… 9am as we were leaving I was feeling just as sleep deprived as before. We grabbed some Paris Baguette and hopped on the next bus back to Daegu where I crashed… hard. We were all too exhausted by our Jinju adventure to even think about attempting Andong, but I did make it there eventually and that will have to be a future post. More pictures to come!
